iUTAH Team - Undergraduate iFellows

Mentors:

Faculty: Douglas Jackson-Smith, USU

Graduate: Ann Armstron, USU

Research Focus:

Research Focus Area 2

Major:

Bachelor of Science Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

Biography:

Viviane Baji is a junior studying Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (ENRE) at Utah State University with a minor in Climate Change and Energy. She is involved in the Honors and Service-Learning Scholars programs at Utah State. She is the community chair for the service program Students Together Ending Poverty and an outreach coordinator for the Cache Valley Volunteer Center. Viviane enjoys research in environmental issues and related policy. She enjoys reading about art history and attending music concerts in her spare time. Upon graduation, Viviane plans to continue studies in economics and eventually work in environmental consulting.

Weekly Recap:

This week started off wonderfully with a great orientation at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah. It was so nice to meet everyone in the cohort! My group is doing the Utah Water Survey iPad Project to examine perspectives on water issues in Utah. This week we gathered enough survey responses in Smithfield and Logan to put us ahead of schedule for data collection. We’ll be in Salt Lake valley next week to get more responses and refine our research questions.

This week I got to train with iFellow Matt, Dr. Jackson-Smith's research assistant Jordan, and a Weber State student named Reva to collect survey responses in the Salt Lake area. We have been in this area since Wednesday and will continue on until early Saturday evening. In addition, I've been honing in on a research question that compares the concern level of Utah residents for water related issues compared to other environmental issues in the state. This research would help us know how people understand environmental issues and the associated risks.

Viviane, Reva, and Matt taking down a table outside of Harmon's in the Salt Lake area on Thursday.

Week 3: June 1-5, 2015

This week the team was in the Salt Lake area again to survey another part of the valley. We were able to survey hundreds of people during our four days there. Our week wrapped up on Saturday evening. From here on out we will be analyzing the data we have collected which will be very exciting!

Week 4: June 8-12, 2015

This week we got familiar with our research questions and sought the best literature review strategies. I¹ve had several research topics to think about but all of them revolve around the survey question that asks about environmental concern. Narrowing it down will depend on the availability of previous literature and what can be answered by the data we have. This week we also learned how to collect geospatial coordinates on GPS units in preparation for a few days out in the field next week.

Week 5: June 15-19, 2015

My research question involves the relationship between age and environmental concern. There is a lot of research about cohort and aging effects on attitudes that I got familiar with this week. We also traveled around Cache Valley and the Salt Lake area to collect GPS coordinates for the canal systems related to the household survey. This will enable researchers to map out differences in respondents’ answers based on their proximity to water.

Week 6: June 22-26, 2015

This week we were able to look at the results of the survey and use them for our research questions. I was excited to look further into the age/environmental concern question and gain some insight. My analysis has started with some basic statistics this week. I also put together a draft poster for the next iFellow meeting!

Week 7: June 29-July 3, 2015

This week I updated my prospectus to reflect the analysis I've done. The prospectus shows my methodology and results. I've also been looking at other ways of measuring the same relationship in Utah to have confidence in my results.

Week 8: July 6-10, 2015

This week we were able to gather some more data for the iPad survey from the Ogden area. The whole team also revised the write-ups for the posters we’ll be presenting on July 17th. It has also been helpful to get Dr. Jackson-Smith’s and Melissa Haeffner’s feedback on my poster and further revise it for the iUTAH symposium.

Week 9: July 13-17, 2015

This week was an incredible buildup to the iUTAH symposium. I was able to finalize posters and go over my presentation with the other iFellows, near-peer mentor, and Doug. We spent all of Friday at the beautiful Homestead Resort learning about the many facets of the iUTAH endeavor and the many projects involved. We also got to present our posters in a special student poster session that was very rewarding. The feedback on the poster from other iUTAH participants was extremely helpful. I am so glad to be a part of this project!

Jordan, Viviane, Matt J, and Matt B at the iUTAH Symposium

Week 10: July 20-24, 2015

This week we were able to help physical scientists collect data along the Red Butte Creek watershed in Salt a Lake City! It was a really interesting experience to learn alongside other scientists and gain an appreciation for their work. The data will be used for analysis and publication within environmental chemistry, ecology, etymology, etc. I was also able to get a start on my presentation for next week's iFellow meeting.

Week 11: July 27-31, 2015

This week was the last week of the iFellow program. I was able to present my research to the other iFellows and mentors in Salt Lake City which was an amazing experience. Throughout the summer I've gotten to know the cohort really well and have enjoyed each iFellow meeting. I plan to continue with my summer work throughout the year with my mentor and look forward to it! Thank you iUTAH!

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation, funded through OIA – 1208732. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Web services provided by the Utah Education Network | Web Accessibility | Terms of Use in partnership with Utah EPSCoR.